"To press ahead with a 10 per cent pay rise is not only putting two fingers up at voters, but it starkly contradicts the pay restraint required elsewhere in the public sector if the government is to balance the nation's books.

"This inefficient bureaucratic monster of a quango has repeatedly failed to deliver taxpayer value and if primary legislation is required to overturn its pronouncement on MPs' pay and reform its processes, then it should be introduced in the Queen's speech".